Kite Strings

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31318
Woo hoo! I actually pulled off a good landing!

Mike Badley - 2014/06/01 20:42:00 UTC

I guess NOMAN needs the résumé:

Started in 1987 - flew a Harrier 1 for a couple of years, got a Magic IV (race) and flew that for several more. Travelled around learning towing (platform, static, aero)...

You didn't learn aero. There are less than a dozen people on the planet who understand aero and you definitely aren't one of them.

...and many different kinds of buttkicking sites with flat slopes, cliffs, ramps, some with launches at 11,0000 and some with coastal marine ridge soaring air - and everything in between.

Borrowing gliders along the way - Comets, Ducks, Sports, Dreams, Falcons, Moyes GTRs, HP's, the HPAT, etc. (all considered the hot ship of the day, some harder to land than others). Loved my K2 which I had for fifteen years but finally started de-laminating, etc. and retired.

Because I hadn't been doing TOO MUCH flying for a good ten year stint (just a few a year) I decided to drop down to an Eagle and work back up. Hated it. Tried an Aeros Stealth 2 (which is much HARDER to land than the T2) and I didn't care for that, nor the way it flies.

No glider is hard to land if it's landed the way it SHOULD be.

Test flew the U2 and big Sport 2 - loved the U2, spot landed it with no stepper on every one of those three tows with almost no wind.

Great! Is that how you learned to hit that area of waist high grass so easily in the Dunlap LZ?

I think that is probably the RIGHT WING for me if I wanted to be 100% comfortable with every aspect of flying. I might be making that choice this year.

But I have been flying the T2 (second season) and in the air, you just can't beat it. Every time I fly with it I don't regret it a bit - and it would sadden me GREATLY to have to give it up.

Ask Jonathan how he feels about having to give up his.

It opens up so much more area to fly and handles like a dream compared to other so-called high performance gliders in the past that I have flown (ever tried to turn a Magic IV fullrace with v.g. on??) It's not hard to set up approaches with, and it can slow down (a bit).

During an approach is a really crappy time to be slowing it down.

With a lot of speed, it has a tendency to adverse yaw...

Bullshit.

...and can PIO (that's what I mean by 'screwy').

"IT" CAN'T *PIO*. PIO is an abbreviation for PILOT Induced Oscillation. The PILOT would be YOU. A glider is INCAPABLE of oscillating ITSELF.

The thing that is beating me...

...besides general cluelessness...

...is the ground speed. You spend a long time getting used to the 'feel' of a glider and the ground speed expected with finals along with the bar/downtube pressure.

You don't EXPECT a particular groundspeed when landing. Whatever the fuck it is you IGNORE it and fly the goddam glider.

My mind is sort of 'imprinted' with this based on a U2 kind of wing and I have to overcome that because I've never had one that needs to be flown in with that much speed.

Bullshit. If you can fly it at altitude there's zero reason not to be able to fly it on final.

I need to get myself really pushing my chest through the frame and not settling into a 'trim speed' approach.

You really need to start looking at what GOOD pilots are doing and stay the fuck prone.

I understand all that - just have to get the 'mantra' going on approach. What's happening to me now is just this slowwwwing down (based on what I am eye-balling), and then a late flare because I've been at trim too long.

Yeah. Everybody and his dog noticed that. So how come you titled the post:

Woo hoo! I actually pulled off a good landing!

Reminds me a lot of idiot fucking Lauren Tjaden and:

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3107
I have a tandem rating!!!

Usually that just means a little belly flop or butt-skid. When it was really off, I got a sideswipe landing because of the tip stall.

If your gonna belly flop a third of the time ANYWAY how come you don't just:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086
Steve Pearson on landings

Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC

I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.

It's getting there...

Gawd. I'd hate to see what it was looking like BEFORE it started getting there.

...but it's a bit like chewing on the advice "You got to speed it up, to stop it." (say what??) and not let your eyeballs deceive you.

You don't hafta speed it up to stop it. Try doing what Niki does. She burns it down to the surface, levels out, and lets it settle on the wheels when IT wants to and stop when IT wants to.

Maybe the T2 isn't my wing.

Don't worry. What you're doing is gonna suck on any wing.

I'm sure as hell going to work on this aspect of flying for the rest of the summer before I give it over for a U2.

Day One, Lesson One on the fuckin' dunes.

It's not that I'm 'over my head' with this wing, it's that I've got some bad habits to fix and I think I can do it - even if you don't. I'll tell you what, though. Your comment (NOMAN) about guys flying wings that are a bit over where 'you' think they should be at is a common thread over the years.

It's total bullshit.

Some guys make it look easy on the high performance, and some guys you just shake your head.

I shake my head whenever I see crap like THIS:

http://vimeo.com/4945693

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3786/14082586920_34b189f5c2_o.png


http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25536
Whoops! Snapped another tip wand :-O

NMERider - 2012/03/14 15:17:14 UTC

His one-technique-fits-all attitude espoused on the Oz Report Forum has become tiresome to read. It does not work in the fucked-up world of XC landings and weary pilots.

Christopher LeFay - 2012/03/15 05:57:43 UTC

January's canonization of Rooney as the Patron Saint of Landing was maddening. He offered just what people wanted to hear: there is an ultimate, definitive answer to your landing problems, presented with absolute authority. Judgment problems? His answer is to remove judgment from the process - doggedly stripping out critical differences in gliders, loading, pilot, and conditions. This was just what people wanted - to be told a simple answer. In thanks, they deified him, carving his every utterance in Wiki-stone.

"Just take one of my clinics and I can teach you how to safely land in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place in switchy turbulent air just as perfectly as I did on my Happy Acres putting green in totally dead air."

Great recipe for getting crippled or killed.

I've seen plenty of broken downtubes, bad approaches, sketchy flying and pulled a few of these 'hot pilots' out of the bushes - or worse. Hang gliding is an imperfect art...

BULL FUCKING SHIT.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhpa/message/11595

Nate Wreyford - 2010/11/09 14:59:39 UTC

Flight experience is totally irrelevant - lol! That is a good one. In a sport that is an art and a science, if you take a mechanical approach and ignore the visceral that comes from frequent hands on, you will get bit. Some here have the bite marks to prove it.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhpa/message/11598

Zack C - 2010/11/10 06:18:31 UTC

One more thing I'll add...I don't think of this sport as 'an art and a science'. Music and paintings are art. Aviation is pure science. I'm not saying feel and intuition aren't important - in fact I believe they are, but ONLY because they compensate for a lack of understanding of the science.

Flying is unintuitive and a reliance on intuition is dangerous. This is one of the main points of Langewiesche's "Stick and Rudder".

...that makes it hard to duplicate every aspect of every flight, every time.

Really makes ya wonder how Cessna, airline, bush, carrier pilots pull it off as consistently as they do.

We learn a bit from every flight we take.

Yeah, always a student. It's just fuckin' amazing that the heads of professional pilots like Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney don't explode by a week an a half into their careers. If I'd learned a bit from every flight I took I'd have told my instructor to go fuck himself after my first wheel landing - which was also my first flight.

I'm not afraid of this wing...

No. It should be afraid of you though.

...just wish I would get dialed into the 'groove' for landing it with that picture perfect flare.

Everybody does. Consider trying to get dialed into reality instead.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31318
Woo hoo! I actually pulled off a good landing!

Jason Boehm - 2014/06/02 14:40:32 UTC

One of the things I think is worth mentioning, based on what I see on the polars i look at, the T2c gets its best glide at ~33 mph...

Yeah Jason, that's why his approaches and landings suck. He doesn't understand polars. Just explain them to him and he'll be a MUCH better pilot. Maybe you could get Bob to do some animated graphics and help solve that issue the same way he did with...



...the standard aerotow weak link - less than five months before Zack Marzec got totaled by his 'cause his pro toad bridle was less than thirty feet long.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=12682
Landing on your feet (for AEROTOW)- So Dangerous

Jason Boehm - 2009/06/29 03:51:02 UTC

Think it might be, Jason?

08-2301
http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5285/13962452653_58aca0cbfc_o.png

16-4112
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2918/14271683531_3ce869fef8_o.png

18-3704

http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/5156/14221283606_3587f96360_o.png

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3859/14423696873_f1326e2320_o.png

46-45901
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2937/14081080220_373f64f01d_o.png




That's about all you motherfuckers talk about over there. Seems to be a lot more dangerous than stuffing battens - I don't see many multi-page discussions on that topic.

Erik Boehm - 2014/06/02 18:51:51 UTC

Nobody seems to have commented that he seems to have taken his flare back at the last moment...

Somebody seems to have commented that he seems to have taken his flare back at the last moment now. And that's a helluva lot more people than have commented that he had absolutely no need whatsoever to do a landing that required one of those bullshit flares.

Jim Gaar - 2014/06/02 19:12:09 UTC

I have a few comments but nobody wants to read anything critical...

That's 'cause one of the fundamental points of The Jack Show mission is provide a friendly community for Hang Glider pilots to hang out and discuss hang gliding. So it's considered poor form to say anything negative about anybody or anything other than T** at K*** S****** - who is poison to this wonderful sport and is permanently banned from that wonderful site in every possible way imaginable.

...like the misleading title to this thread...

Fuck off. For Mike that was a totally awesome landing!

I just keep to myself any more.

Sleazy assholes with single digit IQs need to do a lot more of that.

Jason Boehm - 2014/06/02 19:31:05 UTC

he has good speed at 1:26, at 1:32 its gone

the flare itself wasn't bad at all, he got the rotation , but it there just wast enough energy to slow the descent, as a result he puts his feet forward to keep from ended up on his belly,

And PERISH THE THOUGHT...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086
Steve Pearson on landings

Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC

I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.

...that anybody in this idiot sport should come in on his belly. Break an arm or two if you have to but spare no effort to try to stop it on your feet.
---
Note: if, for whatever bizarre reason, you wanna make sure you catch the new stuff...

I've been doing some massive embedded photo editing lately and something weird was happening when I was trying to submit revisions - and I don't think it was my fault.

Three times yesterday what I intended to submit as an edited post appeared as a new post consisting of the entire text of the target quoted by Yours Truly. (Really messed me up.)

I don't like gaps in post numbers so I just marked them as "delayed" until I could dump something with some amount of substance into them. This post was one of them and the other two were:

http://www.kitestrings.org/post6099.html#p6099
http://www.kitestrings.org/post6100.html#p6100

The first was in:
instructors and other qualified pilot fiends
before I filled it in and moved it to:
Releases

The second, which represented our six thousandth post outside of:
Welcome / About This Forum
was in:
The Bob Show
and is now at:
You are NEVER hooked in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaScVhk3Xxw
Don't land in rotor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaScVhk3Xxw

Joe Schmucker - 2014/06/02

I thought I could make it over the tree line. I made a BAD decision. I should have landed in the field. Instead, I had to turn at the last minute and land in rotor from the trees. I went from 25 feet to eating dirt in about three seconds. I am lucky I walked away. I packed every hole in my head with freshly plowed dirt. The flight crew from Highland Aerosports and the owners Sunny Venesky and Adam Elchin were on scene in a matter of minutes and pulled me out of the wreckage. I am thankful to them for their assistance and for providing a shower for me to rinse the dirt of my ears, nose, eyes and mouth.

I thought I could make it over the tree line.

Yeah.

I made a BAD decision.

One usually doesn't pound in that hard as a consequence of A bad decision. That guideline is holding up just fine in this instance.

I should have landed in the field.

You did. Sort of.

Instead, I had to turn at the last minute and land in rotor from the trees.

Oh. So you landed with a tailwind. So how come the dust cloud appears to be drifting...

29-1823


...straight astern?

I went from 25 feet to eating dirt in about three seconds.

Which, in the course of a launch or landing, is a VERY LONG TIME. Time enough to pull in and get some airspeed even at THAT stage of the game. But...

16-1721

I am lucky I walked away.

Yep. People have had their lives altered and ended with a lot less energy than you had...

32-1826


...available. So did Sunny, Adam, Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney talk to you about why that was a good lesson regarding why you need to be upright ready to run it out with your hands on the downtubes ready to flare the hell outta that sucker?

Start the clock here:

20-1808


Do you think you could've been configured any way other than as you were and still walked away smelling like a soil encrusted rose?.

It's a no brainer that Paul Vernon...



...was upright with his hands on the downtubes set to execute his waist high wheat field technique two ECCs ago. (Anybody ask about how he was doing at this year's ECC? Just kidding.)

I packed every hole in my head with freshly plowed dirt.

Freshly plowed?

38-2423


Check out the surface and the soybeans in that "freshly plowed" field. With what you had on your basetube, it was EASILY wheel landable.

The flight crew from Highland Aerosports and the owners Sunny Venesky and Adam Elchin were on scene in a matter of minutes and pulled me out of the wreckage.

Yeah pulling people out of wreckage is about the only thing those pigfuckers are useful for and good at.

I am thankful to them for their assistance and for providing a shower for me to rinse the dirt of my ears, nose, eyes and mouth.

Well, that too.

ayev8tor - 2014/06/03

WHACK!

GO FUCK YOURSELF! ASSHOLE!

Davis Straub - 2014/06/03

We all got to watch this from the good side of the trees.

I got news for ya, Davis... Whatever side of the trees you, the "flight crew" at Ridgely, and the kind of dregs who can tolerate your presences are on is NOT the good side. At least not with something a lot worse than this happening.

Lon McClure - 2014/06/03

Must have been a pretty strong headwind.

To set up a rotor on the lee side of that pathetic little excuse for a treeline? Yeah, it must've been howling. Really surprising they were able to get gliders off the runway in a crosswind like that.

Glad you're okay!

ME TOO! The world is always a much poorer place whenever a pro toad eats it really bad.

pmashurenko - 2014/06/04

How strong was wind on that day?

Howling! See above.

Joe Schmucker - 2014/06/04

I think it was around seven to ten mph.

See? Told ya. Seven. Gusting to ten. Really gotta watch out for rotors coming off treelines in marginal conditions like those. Probably not that great an idea to fly at all. Probably should've scrubbed that day.

I was penetrating good enough to make it until I got about halfway across the field when the air stream coming over the trees hit me.

BULL FUCKING SHIT.

- Here's the very first frame of your video:

01-0001


And THIS:

05-0903


is about as stuffed as we ever see your bar.

When you were about halfway across the field the airstream didn't have the slightest fucking clue about anything anywhere near the surface. It didn't even know there WAS a surface anywhere nearby. You might as well have been at a thousand feet.

- The only thing you got hit by was the ground. And you got hit by the ground 'cause about the only things you did to prepare for a landing was to unzip and kick out of your pod. And just how useful did those two actions prove to be?

By the time I realized it, it was too late.

Too late to WHAT? Do a COMPETENT approach and landing like:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7459/14066740384_ee857f9f87_o.png

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/14066738354_b704cbf694_o.png

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7426/14066736124_357e1df5c6_o.png


Baby Niki here?

Blam.

No shit.

Joe Schmucker - 2014/06/04

Day 1 after the crash I feel almost perfectly normal.

And that's a GOOD thing?

My shoulders are still a little sore because the harness stopped my forward progress at the shoulders which is probably what saved my neck (literally).

And not having your hands on the downtubes...

19-1804


24-1818

...is what virtually CERTAINLY saved you...

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3859/14423696873_f1326e2320_o.png


...from getting a broken arm, dislocated shoulder or two.

Joe Schmucker - 77220 - H4 - 2005/11/26 - Joel Spano - AT FL PL AWCL CL FSL RLF TUR XC

Great job, dude. You should do just fine in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place in ACTUAL rotor or switchy conditions.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37685
Joe plows

Davis Straub - 2014/06/03 12:00:46 UTC

See the story behind this video in yesterday's Oz Report (Highland Aerosports, Ridgely, Maryland, USA)

Joe Schmucker sends:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaScVhk3Xxw


Be sure to check out the frame capture at the end of the video from the moment of impact.

Thanks to Joe for being a good sport about putting up his video. We all had a great time with it here at Highland Aerosports.

Good. I hope you at Highland Aerosports get tons more shit like this to have great times with.

He wasn't feeling too bad after taking out lots of aluminum.

While Zack Marzec was feeling REALLY bad - albeit not for very long - after taking out very little aluminum. Go figure.

Pat Halfhill - 2014/06/04 00:42:57 UTC

Damn Joe! Glad you are ok.

Fuck you, Pat.

Davis Straub - 2014/06/04 01:21:02 UTC

Dan Milla tried the same trick today and cleared the trees by about five feet.

I guess learning from someone else's mistake was not in the cards.

Imagine that...






047-03703
http://live.staticflickr.com/5529/14422573378_5385a9a99a_o.png

055-04709
http://live.staticflickr.com/3885/14422571978_d47ec5c921_o.png



http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Davis Straub - 2011/08/28 15:26:28 UTC

Then again, Russell Brown had us double up behind him after six breaks in a row at Zapata. We couldn't figure out why we had so many breaks so quickly. Maybe just coincidence.

...Davis. Go fuckin' figure.

Joe Schmucker - 2014/06/04 01:21:31 UTC

Thanks to all for the well wishes.

Guess that counts T** at K*** S****** out.

It's day two since I made a new furrow in the corn field.

If you're gonna make a habit of that then learn your crops. Soybean.

Other than being a little sore in my shoulders I feel back to normal.

And that's a GOOD thing?

My shoulders absorbed the deceleration which probably saved my neck.

Goddam right. And because your hands weren't on the downtubes you didn't have snapping humeri to contribute to the deceleration.

I just got done cleaning dirt out of all my equipment. I came home today much to my chagrin because I want to save my days off for the days when I can actually fly. I was having a freakin' great time with everyone at the comp.

Fuck everyone at the comp.

I learned some very very valuable lessons...

Always a student.

...and I was SUPER lucky to come away without a doctor bill.

Goddam right.

Thanks to all the help you guys gave me to help me get up and rinse the dirt out of my mouth and eyes. Thank God for camel backs!

Yes God. And for 130 pound Greenspot. If you hadn't invented it You only know how many people your wonderful creation Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney would have had to spend his valuable time visiting in the hospital.

About two seconds after impact, all was still.

Just the dust silently drifting to the northeast.

I moved all my body parts and everything seemed ok.

As for the brain... Kinda hard to tell - but who gives a rat's ass anyway.

Then, I felt fluids running down my arm and neck. It was water squirting from my bag o' water. It was a bit unsettling for a second or two.

In thirteen years of flying, I've never encountered a problem with rotor.

You still haven't. You haven't encountered a problem with a rotor any more than idiot pro toad Zack Marzec encountered a problem with an invisible dust devil - or, for that matter, a monster thermal.

I now have much respect for it.

Can you point me to any other discussions in which you've participated? If I find any indications of intelligence I'll recommend getting a brain scan.

I use an old version of the GoPro so the vid is pretty crappy.

Yes, but in this instance it told us everything we needed to know. But do get yourself an upgrade for the next one.

I'm glad I at least had a crappy one so I could review how fast that rotor dropped me to the ground.

Are you sure we're talking about the same video?

I was hitting the ground before I even realized what was happening.

You still don't have a fuckin' clue what happened. And this is after being observed by a flock of eyewitnesses as it happened and after the Ridgely crew - Adam Elchin, Sunny Instructor-Of-The-Year Venesky, Jim Patron-Saint-Of-Landing; Davis Straub; all the hotshot pecker measurers at the comp had had shots at the video.

Bart Doets - 2014/06/04 11:38:36 UTC

Go fuck yourself, Bart.

Was rotor really the reason?

No. There was very obviously nothing remotely resembling a rotor involved.

I don't see any rounding out...

What did he have in the way of speed to round out with?

I think you just flew your glider into the ground...?

You really need a question mark after that one?

I mean, sure you're rotored down...

BULLSHIT.

...but the landing...

The WHAT?

...itself could have been better!

Could've been worse too. At least he didn't have his hands in "landing" configuration.

Davis Straub - 2014/06/04 12:00:38 UTC

Rotor would have brought him down to the ground much quicker than he expected.

It would have if he'd experienced any.

For sure he should have got up on the down tubes and flared.

Yeah Davis. Never give up on your tireless efforts to make us all better pilots.

But as he says it all happened so quickly.

Suck my dick, Davis.

Joe Schmucker - 2014/06/04 13:37:16 UTC

Looks are deceiving here.

Not if you've got a fuckin' clue what you're looking at.

I was flying fast (obviously by the ground speed at impact).

Total fucking moron. You never flew faster than trim enough to be worth mentioning - even though you were prone with your hands on the basetube the whole way. Then you hit gradient and shadow and lost what little airspeed you had and picked up lotsa groundspeed.

I was pushed to the ground.

You spelled "mushed" wrong.

No amount of flaring would have stopped me from being pushed down to the ground.

You're right about the flaring but you spelled "mushed" wrong - AGAIN.

I was at the altitude I would normally round out and begin to reach for the uprights and within one second I had a mouth full of dirt.

Good thing you didn't have any more time or you'd be dictating these posts from the ICU - at best.

Jump to next post:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post6105.html#p6105

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37685
Joe plows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaScVhk3Xxw


Here's the entire collection of stills I pulled off of this video to put a reality check on all the partial and total crap that's being written about it.

- I've recorded all the extremes of pitch control movement during the descent. If you have trouble differentiating between max positives and max negatives try blowing the photos up on your screen.

- There's zero indication of turbulence at any point. Nice smooth mush descent all the way down until he plops it onto the ground.

01-0001
- 01 - chronological order
- 00 - seconds
- 01 - frame (30 fps)

01-0001

02-0104

03-0228

04-0326

05-0903

06-1204

07-1222

08-1404

09-1600

10-1615

11-1620

12-1700

13-1703

14-1706

15-1712

16-1721

17-1727

18-1801

19-1804

20-1808

21-1813

22-1816

23-1817


Starting in the next frame we're gonna be kicking up a dust cloud. Note its drift.

24-1818

25-1819


Oops. I had called this guy a pro toad.

26-1820


He's not.

27-1821


Looks like he still has a good downtube at this point.

28-1822


Wow! And we know he's still got two good arms because, even though he wasn't actually flying the glider, he had both his hands in the right places to do it and the best places to survive a crash for someone who's still functioning or trying to function as a pilot.

29-1823

30-1824

31-1825


This next one is a really great shot...

32-1826


Shows just how violent a crash someone who went in prone with his hands on the basetube can often walk away from and still go home and work on the exercises he needs to do to prepare for climbing back into the bar after launching unhooked.

33-1827

34-1828

35-1829

36-1900

37-1901


And finally...

38-2423


...the surface he could've rolled in on if he'd come in with enough airspeed to be able to round out and bleed speed in ground effect.

A thousand thanks, Joe. This one's textbook. And we have untold scores of total assholes who've done major permanent foot damage by saying and not saying stuff.

Jump to top:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post6104.html#p6104

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaScVhk3Xxw
Don't land in rotor

George Adams - 2014/06/04 11:00

Do you know why this went this way?

Obviously not.

Through the video I said out loud... slow... slow... too slow... way too slow! And it flew into the ground...

"Flew" is a somewhat dignified term for what it did.

A glider needs a lot of EXTRA energy to perform any kind of a flare.

FUCK the FLARE. It needs a lot of extra energy to punch into gradient and shadow. If you arrive in ground effect level with a lot of airspeed it's pretty hard to get into the kind of trouble he did.

A sink rate of 200 fpm becomes 300 fpm if a glider enters ground effect slowly.

Bullshit. Your efficiency increases / sink rate decreases in ground effect. Ground effect is a GOOD thing if you've got sufficient runway in front of you but it was totally negligible compared to the real issue which was arriving at the deck with no airspeed.

An extra five to ten mph of airspeed allows the glider to round out and to keep it flying for the next sixty yards without crashing...

Fuck sixty yards. He had plenty of headwind.

...at which point the proper flare can be performed.

Fuck the goddam "proper" flare. Here's Niki:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/14066738354_b704cbf694_o.png


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7426/14066736124_357e1df5c6_o.png

perfectly executing the proper flare.

Maarten Spoek - 2014/06/04 14:00

I don't think you can be pushed to the ground (at least it won't happen in real life situations).

Since when did hang gliding ever start worrying about real life situations?

Airplanes crash because they stall in a microburst, because the wind direction will change rapidly from head to tail. The thing is, the air doesn't go through the ground.

If it did we'd be majorly fucked.

So even more speed will solve the problem.

How could he have possibly made it that far with any LESS speed?

The only thing is, you didn't have anymore time or space to do it.

Yes. Hence:

32-1826

Maarten Spoek - 2014/06/04 14:00

It's hard to tell from the video, but your groundspeed seems ok, but because it goes so fast, you don't flare.

He didn't have anything to flare WITH.

You even pull in just before hitting the ground. All in all decision making is extremely difficult in such situation.

Bullshit. There are a lot of simple fundamentals to this game one's supposed to understand and have wired before leaving the training hill.

Joe Schmucker - 2014/06/04 14:00

FYI to all, this event was MY FAULT.

Name a crash that WASN'T the fault of either the guy clipped into the glider or, when relevant, the guy(s) supplying and regulating the thrust.

I should never have gotten that close to the tree line with that kind of head wind.

That had shit to do with the problem. That wouldn't have been an unacceptably dangerous place to put it down if you hadn't had the option of the rest of the field.

It was totally a bad call.

Not totally. You had your hands and body in a damn good crash configuration and walked away not really worse for the wear.

I just don't want people to feel that I am making any excuses for myself.

The problem is you've got no fuckin' CLUE what you did wrong.

This was totally pilot error...

Yeah. Big surprise.

...due to inexperience flying XC.

BULL FUCKING SHIT.

- I don't know what you did between takeoff and return to terra firma but it's tough to make a case that slamming in fifty yards shy of your airport of origin had shit to do with XC. Any solid Hang 1.2 could've put that glider down in the same spot in the same conditions like a feather.

Joe Schmucker - 77220 - H4 - 2005/11/26 - Joel Spano - AT FL PL AWCL CL FSL RLF TUR XC

- Aren't those RLF, TUR, and XC ratings supposed to MEAN something?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37685
Joe plows

Brad Gryder - 2014/06/05 08:36:15 UTC

The best prevention against pounding in due to wind gradient effects and/or large scale rotor effects is to aggressively pull-in through the gradient, verses just kinda sorta pulling in through the gradient.

1. The best prevention against pounding in due to wind gradient effects is to aggressively pull in.
2. The only acceptable prevention against pounding in due to rotor effects is to not land in rotors.
3. Why the fuck are we still talking about rotors?
4. Somebody show me a frame in which what this bozo is doing can be described as kinda sorta or any other flavor of pulling in.

I learned this the hard way, and just like Joe there was nothing I could do after a certain point but to eat dirt and learn.

And LEARN? Let's not go nuts here and get carried away with this "learning" thing. I'd say learn the way to swing your body way outside the control frame so it stays up there while you reach out with one hand and release and then give it a permanent rest.

Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad you're ok.

He's not OK. He slammed in so hard that he's suffering from a long-term delusion about being slammed in by a rotor.

Jim Rooney - 2014/06/05 15:13:16 UTC

Well, well, well... Hang gliding's Patron Saint of Landings is gonna grace us with some of the products of his world famous keen intellect.

Sorry, I'm going to be "that guy" for a second.

Really? Name one second of your miserable flying career...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29984
What happened to the org?

Mike Lake - 2013/09/26 18:59:57 UTC

On the other hand there are plenty of people who fly lots but still manage to spew out the most incredible and dangerous garbage to others.

This includes some of the "professional" people who work in the industry and are therefore able to regard themselves as such.
They really believe they have a monopoly on knowledge and when finding themselves on the losing side of a debate resort to the old standby "This is what we do so fuck off you weekender".

I say good riddance to those nauseating, know it all, self indulgent "professionals" who have banished themselves from this site.

...when you've ever STOPPED being "that "guy"".

Mainly because watching sketchy sh(t and bad decisions.. over and over.. gets a bit irritating.

No...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2467
weak links

Jim Rooney - 2007/07/22 22:30:28 UTC

I've heard it a million times before from comp pilots insisting on towing with even doubled up weaklinks (some want no weaklink). I tell them the same thing I'm telling you... suck it up.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Davis Straub - 2011/08/28 15:26:28 UTC

Then again, Russell Brown had us double up behind him after six breaks in a row at Zapata. We couldn't figure out why we had so many breaks so quickly. Maybe just coincidence.

...shit.

The "best" prevention for pounding in is not to land behind treelines when it's blowing 15+

1. Ya know sumpin', motherfucker? There are TONS of flying sites - 'specially in the East - where the only way to not land behind treelines when it's blowing fifteen plus is to not fly when it's blowing fifteen plus.

2. He called the wind seven to ten. And nobody has contradicted him on that point. And if none of you pigfuckers is contradicting him I'm going with his figures.

The "best" way to avoid being in that situation is not to try and squeak in over the treeline for a relight.

1. He didn't try to squeak in over the treeline for a relight. He bailed on that plan with a safe margin and - if he'd had a fuckin' clue on how to land - could've easily stopped where he did and come out smelling like a rose.

2. I could put it down in the identical impact point in identical conditions hundreds of times in a row without ever once slightly bowing a downtube.

Sorry, I love Joe...

Yeah, stunningly easy to spot the closet cases - well before they go public with professions of their true feelings.

...but a bad decision is a bad decision.

1. How do any bad decisions Joe made stack up against the ones Zack Marzec, Mark Knight, and...

The Press - 2006/03/15

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is urgently pushing for new hang-gliding industry standards after learning a hang-gliding pilot who suffered serious injuries in a crash three weeks ago had not clipped himself on to the glider.

Extreme Air tandem gliding pilot James (Jim) Rooney safely clipped his passenger into the glider before departing from the Coronet Peak launch site, near Queenstown, CAA sports and recreation manager Rex Kenny said yesterday.

However, he took off without attaching himself.

In a video, he was seen to hold on to the glider for about fifty meters before hitting power lines.

Rooney and the passenger fell about fifteen meters to the ground.

...Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney made?

2. I'll say one thing in favor of Jon Orders. After he screwed the same pooch you did he didn't hop right back up on his Davis Show pulpit and continue delivering his sermons about other people's bad decisions.

This wan't a matter of "pulling in" to "pull it off"... this was a matter of "don't play with the dragon".

1. Yeah...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Jim Rooney - 2011/08/28 19:39:17 UTC

Weak links break for all kinds of reasons.
Some obvious, some not.

The general consensus is the age old adage... "err on the side of caution".

The frustration of a weaklink break is just that, frustration.
And it can be very frustrating for sure. Especially on a good day, which they tend to be. It seems to be a Murphy favorite. You'll be in a long tug line on a stellar day just itching to fly. The stars are all lining up when *bam*, out of nowhere your trip to happy XC land goes up in a flash. Now you've got to hike it all the way back to the back of the line and wait as the "perfect" window drifts on by.

I get it.
It can be a pisser.

But the "other side"... the not cautions one... is not one of frustration, it's one of very real danger.
Better to be frustrated than in a hospital, or worse.
No exaggeration... this is the fire that the "other side" is made of. Best not to play with it.

Right. Always avoid those fire breathing dragons like the plague.

2. My best theory on why the usual douchebags are studiously and conspicuously avoiding saying anything about the fact that Joe never once had the bar pulled back more than an inch and a half... It doesn't make the hang gliding industry look as bad blaming the crash on a stupid decision to land in a rotor as bad as it looks after signing off someone who has no fuckin' clue how to land a glider on a Four.

Why am I on a rant?...

Because after getting chewed to shreds on your bullshit about the Zack Marzec fatality and not being able to utter a single syllable about the Mark Knight fatality without even the stupidest participant in this idiot sport being able to see how totally full of shit you are, you finally have an issue in which you're relatively safe running your mouth and showing everybody what a superior being you are.

...because the very next day!!!! An other guy did the exact same nonsense move...

1. "An other" is ONE WORD - ass hole.

2. Right. Squeaking into the airport with five feet of clearance over the treeline is the exact same nonsense as mushing down through gradient and shadow and slamming it.

3. We haven't heard one word about how much speed Dan Milla was carrying when he cleared the treeline. He may have been doing NOTHING that wasn't completely safe. And anyway...




Compare/Contrast.

...he fortunately/unfortunately got away with it (barely).

Every fucking pro toad who survives hooking up with a bent pin barrel release within easy reach and a Rooney Link to increase the safety of the towing operation behind any of you assholes is UNFORTUNATELY getting away with it - BARELY.

THE NEXT DAY!

Oh WOW! The NEXT DAY! So what was the time lapse between THESE:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Davis Straub - 2011/08/26 14:04:52 UTC

Russell Brown (tug pilot, tug owner, Quest Air owner) said go ahead and double up (four strands of Cortland Greenspot). He knows I used his Zapata weaklink in Big Spring (pilots were asked to tell the tug pilot if they were doing that).

total fucking douchebags doing exactly the some thing over and over and expecting better results?

Sadly, one of the side effects of competition flying is that it brings out the worst in decision making.

What could POSSIBLY be worse decision making...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2467
weak links

Jim Rooney - 2007/08/01 13:47:23 UTC

Whatever's going on back there, I can fix it by giving you the rope.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31052
Poll on weaklinks

Jim Rooney - 2013/03/04 19:31:36 UTC

The accepted standards and practices changed.
I still won't tow people with doubled up weaklinks. You don't get to "make shit up". I don't "make shit up" for that matter either.

We all play by the same rules, or we don't play.
Morningside decided that they were happy with 200lb weaklink. They changed their tug's link and they don't just pass the stuff out either. If you'd like to know more about it... go ask them.
The law of the land at comps was 130lb greenspot or you don't tow. Seriously. It was announced before the comp that this would be the policy. Some guys went and made their case to the safety committee and were shut down. So yeah, sorry... suck it up.

...than placing one's life in the hands of any of you miserable incompetent lying pigfuckers?

Yesterday, John pounded in while attempting a landing approach that I wouldn't try on a calm day with a beginner glider... and why?... convenience!

Oh yeah... CONVENIENCE.

Is this a joke ?
Page 07

Jim Rooney - 2011/08/28 10:15:12 UTC

Oh, in case it's not obvious (which it doesn't seem to be), once someone starts telling me what the "sole" purpose of a weaklink is, I tune them out as they have no clue what they're talking about.

Weaklinks are there to improve the safety of the towing operation, as I've stated before.

Any time someone starts in on this "sole purpose" bullshit, it's cuz they're arguing for stronger weaklinks cuz they're breaking them and are irritated by the inconvenience. I've heard it a million times and it's a load of shit. After they've formed their opinion, then they go in search of arguments that support their opinion.

Like the CONVENIENCE people want in:

- two point bridles which hold the nose down so's the basetube isn't stuffed as they're coming off the cart and climbing out from the runway

- homemade funky shit releases with:
-- very short track records
-- straight pins that don't weld themselves shut under normal loads
-- actuators not within easy reach so's they can blow tow when they need to and while controlling the glider

- back end weak links:
-- in the middle of the legal range
-- which:
--- protect against overload
--- won't protect against being dragged and high angles of attack
-- allow them to get all the way up to release altitude a thousand out of a thousand times

- legal front end weak links which won't:
-- protect the Dragonfly's tow mast breakaway
-- suddenly leave them with 250 feet of Spectra draped over their basetubes while they're coming off the field

- Actual tug PILOTS who know what the fuck their talking about and doing who will NEVER fix whatever's going on back there by dumping 250 feet of Spectra draped over their basetubes while they're coming off the field

WTF Over?
He had gigantic fields to land in with so many unobstructed paths to victory, but chose to thread the needle between a bunch of solid objects and failed... so he could be closer to the launch line?

Yeah?

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=11288
*???tandems???*

Jim Rooney - 2009/03/29 20:32:51 UTC

Wow, didn't think I'd be taken as trying to hide anything...
No worries.... my info is all public knowledge.

Me... clip in failure 2006, Coronet Peak NZ. Extreme Air hang gliding.
(btw, everyone seems to miss the fact that it was _during_ my hang check). Yes, tandem. Passenger was fine, visited me in the hospital. Me? multiple injuries. Two and a half months in hospital.

You left that site in a lot worse shape than he did after a lot shorter "flight" and a rather worse landing selection solely because you never once in the entire course of your foot launch career could ever be bothered with the INCONVENIENCE of...

With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.

...demonstrating a method of establishing that the "pilot" is hooked in just prior to launch.

Guys really... quit pounding into the earth, please.

How? THIS:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bRrpHNa68iY/UQ6Pv9gRZyI/AAAAAAAAjTg/Hc22bx5122Q/s2048/20943781_BG1.jpg


was a much better pound in than John's, he was one of you "professional pilot" assholes, and...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec

Jim Rooney - 2013/03/07 18:24:58 UTC

You're the one speculating on Zack's death... not me.
Hell, you've even already come to your conclusions... you've made up your mind and you "know" what happened and what to do about.
It's disgusting and you need to stop.
You weren't there. You don't know.
All you have is the tug pilot report, who himself says he doesn't know... and HE WAS THERE... and he doesn't know.

...he didn't Do anything wrong and was using equipment Quest had spent twenty years making as inconvenient as possible. So what are we supposed to do differently and why hasn't anybody told us what it is?

And who's in worse shape? John Dullahan who chose to thread the needle between a bunch of solid objects while attempting a landing approach that you wouldn't try on a calm day with a beginner glider or Mark Knight making a straight and level pass right over the runway at Ak-Chin Regional?

I realize it's a competition.

Yeah. Despite the fact that you don't actually FLY in any competitions anywhere ever ('cause if you did you'd finish near the bottom of the heap and it would be really hard for you to keep conning all the dildos into believing that you're endowed with a supernatural intellect and comprehension of this sport.

I realize that you want to win...

How do you realize that competitors want to win when all you've ever done to win anything is declare yourself the winner?

...but please realize the extra risks you're taking on.

Thank you so very much.



I'm pretty sure I understand the risks better than just about anybody else in the sport. And assholes like you dwarf just about all other considerations.

I'm sick and tired of calling the ambulance.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Jim Rooney - 2011/08/31 09:25:57 UTC

Only later, when we're visiting them in the hospital can they begin to hear what we've told them all along.

Just like you're sick and tired of visiting all the stronglinkers in the hospital. Except...

Jim Rooney - 2011/08/31 09:25:57 UTC

You've not heard about strong-link incidents.
Uh, yeah... cuz we don't let you use them.

...you've never actually visited a stronglinker in the hospital. And you've never actually called an ambulance in for a glider crash. But somebody sure had to call one in for YOU and YOUR PASSENGER.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37685
Joe plows

Joe Schmucker - 2014/06/05 15:28:54 UTC

Ain't no hard feelings here Jim.

Fuck anybody and everybody who doesn't have hard feelings for that piece of shit.

I am the first one to beat myself up on this.

Yeah, but I can do SO much of a better job of it.

I've said from the start it was my fault entirely.

But if you HADN'T screwed that pooch you'd be crediting all the wonderful instructors you've had to help make you the pilot you are today. So no. Your instructors majorly suck too.

There were some "noob" components to my crash but lazy was the biggest one.

Bullshit. Learn some fuckin' Hang One landing fundamentals.

Thanks and sorry for creating the drama.

Keep 'em coming, dude. The more the merrier for Yours Truly.

Davis Straub - 2014/06/05 15:40:11 UTC

John Dullahan has created much more drama than you Joe...

Yeah Davis. But it doesn't hold a CANDLE to all the death and destruction you and your asshole Quest and Ridgely buddies have perpetrated on the sport.

...but until your incident, we don't have the dramatic videos.

Here's another:

The Press - 2006/03/15

However, he took off without attaching himself.
In a video, he was seen to hold on to the glider for about fifty meters before hitting power lines.
Rooney and the passenger fell about fifteen meters to the ground.

dramatic video we never got to see.

Lots of back and shoulder breakage.

He's probably gone from the sport permanently. Too bad it wasn't you.

Tom Lyon - 2014/06/06 00:59:17 UTC

I really want to thank Joe for sharing this and for being so gracious in his receipt of the comments. This helps new pilots like me learn SO MUCH and I am deeply appreciative.

Good. And please reciprocate by posting a video of yourself slamming in after mushing through a gradient.

It would be much easier to think "I'm not putting that video up for comments."

Why? Since when has a video of someone slamming in...

05-4321c

06-4503c

07-4625c

08-4923c

09-5001c

10-5024c

11-5125c


...doing stupid shit ever 'caused anybody the slightest problem in the hang gliding "community"? How much of a hit did Mission Soaring Center take for THIS:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8576/16673571861_3962427127_o.png


one?

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you are OK.

Anybody hear anything from Paul Vernon lately? Aren't we gonna hear what a great job Ridgely did training him for XC flying?

And I also want to say thank you to Jim Rooney.

OK Tom. You just crossed a line there's virtually no chance of you ever coming back from.

I had been back to this video a few times and was still not completely understanding the dynamics.

But, thanks to Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney, now you're totally solid. And you're totally cool seeing a glider descending through a fairly hefty gradient with the bar never stuffed more than THIS:

02-0104


And when you read comments like THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaScVhk3Xxw
Don't land in rotor

George Adams - 2014/06/04 11:00

Through the video I said out loud... slow... slow... too slow... way too slow! And it flew into the ground...

do they mean NOTHING to you?

I felt confident that I wouldn't try to get over the treeline...

And I feel confident that I can safely feel out options while always having a bulletproof bailout if things don't appear to be working out the way I'd like them to.

...but I was fuzzy on exactly what I was seeing. Jim cleared it up completely.

Yeah. Ain't he just excellent...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec

Jim Rooney - 2013/02/16 23:18:54 UTC

Naw... You want me to make bold black and white statements so that you can have a go.
Unfortunately that's not what you're getting.
Some people listen with the intent of understanding.

Others do so with the intent of responding.

...at that sorta thing.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec

Deltaman - 2013/02/16 22:41:36 UTC

How is that possible to write so much ..and say NOTHING !?

It's so important that we keep working to make our sport safer.

Yeah. Fuck you, Tom.

And as a brand new H2 with just six mountain launches (Lookout) and no solo aerotows yet, I'm soaking in everything I possibly can. Thanks everyone.

You don't have ACCESS to EVERYONE on the Jack and Davis Shows. So what you're soaking in is just more of the pure unadulterated shit they've soaked you in at Lockout.

Jump to next post:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post6132.html#p6132

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Ouu3yU1EU


01-005103
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3913/14388142693_885f551f9a_o.png


Commitment to launch:

02-005224
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3836/14181505287_ceddaf02a4_o.png


Hook-in check:

03-005427
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5502/14181332259_0426d77422_o.png

04-005609
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2895/14367058794_a8fd7e338d_o.png


Bar held way back the whole flight. Too fast/scared.

05-010524
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5115/14364631631_8c2c9138af_o.png

06-005922
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3903/14181392560_a0c4c8f88b_o.png

07-015015
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5115/14366460092_db8c2ec484_o.png

08-050508
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5501/14181499947_50c5426329_o.png

09-053308
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2939/14367959615_4ab03206b8_o.png

10-061310
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2898/14181389130_eb344a6119_o.png


Final:

11-064509
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3920/14181388570_e6e7b2b7a3_o.png

12-065701
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3880/14344852606_db740bb8e6_o.png

13-065725
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5506/14181496787_860433c785_o.png


One hand up to no control / stunt landing / wrist break position:

14-065829
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3882/14364624981_26171fbb83_o.png


Both hands up to no control / stunt landing / wrist break position:

15-070017
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3890/14181385500_ca263dbdd6_o.png

16-070210
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2915/14181384710_d3c8f16ccf_o.png


Flare with no intent to flare. Looking, expecting to go, going down:

17-070304
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3866/14364622541_367c0ab419_o.png


Pulls back in:

18-070319
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2906/14181320939_4a7e01920e_o.png

19-070422
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2940/14366451172_a3531d61e0_o.png


Brisk walk speed, looking down, bar in:

20-070503
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2926/14367951265_3c9bfddab1_o.png

21-070516
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2899/14181490677_a4ab911dce_o.png


Basetube caught, pilot still moving forward, hands trapped behind downtube, immediate serious damage inevitable:

22-070517
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5576/14181330288_d863334a9f_o.png


Wrist broken, career interrupted or ended:

23-070524
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3882/14367042844_436d2cba42_o.png

24-070525
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5477/14181315989_1272be3843_o.png


Wheel visible. There wasn't any attempt to use it for landing and at this point it can't be used for landing:

25-070829
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5548/14388123233_682af7526f_o.png

26-083020
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3907/14181486687_f41926e8f5_o.png

27-115006
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2939/14367040154_3d13098716_o.png

Kerena Shefa - 2014/03

Finished physiotherapy a couple of weeks ago (broken wrist) and now I'm working on my arms to get back to shape. can't wait to get back to flying

Gil Dodgen - 1995/01

All of this reminds me of a comment Mike Meier made when he was learning to fly sailplanes. He mentioned how easy it was to land a sailplane (with spoilers for glide-path control and wheels), and then said, "If other aircraft were as difficult to land as hang gliders no one would fly them."

No shit, Mike.

11-04421
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4280/34683467034_1d6fd566d9_o.png

22-10425
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4280/34683465364_581746cbbd_o.png

27-11304
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33-12400
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36-12714
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4290/35357510462_7bcf60c93e_o.png


That was nearly two decades ago. Ever done a single goddam thing to address that issue? Or are the downtubes sales just too lucrative?

Jump to top:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post6124.html#p6124

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6328
Dullahan ECC Accident Report

John Dullahan - 2014/06/10 23:35:09 UTC

First, congratulations to Felix and Hugh...

Fuck Hugh.

...who had some spectacular flights, and to the sport class pilots who supported each other with little or no evidence of the hard competitiveness that makes people jockey to get in the launch line, etc.

What percentage of them made it all the way up to ten feet on the first shot?

Thanks especially to everyone who packed up my HG stuff and take care of me, especially to Sunny and Adam...

Fuck Sunny and Adam.

...to Greg Sessa, my roommate at Best Western, who took care of my possessions, the bill etc., and to Hugh McElrath, who retrieved my Subaru.

Have you got it back from him yet?

I am sorry to have missed the spectacular flying conditions the latter part of the week.

So's Joe Schmucker.

I came home last night (Monday, June 9th) and am a bit loopy from pain medication (oral morphine, oxycodone) and muscle relaxant (baclofen), which is dispensed by wifie JoAnn, my attentive and meticulous pharmacist and care-giver.

To correct fractures of T3, T4, and T5, T2 through T6 were supported with two permanent titanium rods and pins, and bone grafts were placed where needed. The non-displacement fractures of the scapula and one rib will heal themselves. I can easily walk and climb stairs, but can't yet drive due to heavy pain medication.

In the past, I had problems keeping the Litesport 4 level on tow, but had no trouble on several tows this year, both before and during the ECC. Although it has an excellent glide, the glider is known for difficulty of flying it straight with VG. (Incidentally, Dan Lukaszewicz, who broke his humerus...

Wild guess...

...during this ECC, was also flying a Litesport.)

Foot landing, 'cause he was coming down in a waist high wheat field, right?

After release on my ill-fated tow on June 4th, there were immediate PIOs...

No John. YOU oscillated the glider. If you want the glider to stop oscillating take your hands off the control bar. It probably won't go where you want it to but I one hundred percent guarantee you that it'll stop oscillating.

...which I reduced by pushing out and releasing much of the 1/3 VG I had on during tow. However, the PIOs resumed shortly afterwards, and there was a left turn bias, neither of which completely went away.

At about a thousand feet while flying just south of the airfield and towards the main road with moderate airspeed (airfield on right), the glider did an uncommanded left turn (right wing rising) even though I was flying with moderate airspeed and trying to turn right towards the LZ. After finally turning and flying NW (winds were about six to eight mph from the NW), I had continuous PIOs.

At about forty feet on final, I was to the right and above two aviation fuel tanks, when I had an uncommanded slipping left turn towards the tanks. While unsuccessfully trying to turn back to the right, I saw that the left flying wire would contact the aviation fuel sign extending above the tanks. It did so, which whipped me around the sign and pounded me into the ground, head first, at about a 45 degree angle.

Bull fucking shit. Didn't you even bother reading what happened?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37685
Joe plows

Jim Rooney - 2014/06/05 15:13:16 UTC

Yesterday, John pounded in while attempting a landing approach that I wouldn't try on a calm day with a beginner glider... and why?... convenience! WTF Over?
He had gigantic fields to land in with so many unobstructed paths to victory, but chose to thread the needle between a bunch of solid objects and failed... so he could be closer to the launch line?

Jesus H. Keeriste! Next you'll be telling us that Keavy Nenninger was killed because of a control system failure and Zack Marzec was killed because he couldn't hold his nose down using a pro toad bridle and his standard aerotow inconveniencer inconvenienced him excessively.

The immediate and intense pain in my back and the broken downtube gave notice that a relight was not going to happen ☹. I was able to get out of the harness and walk towards the break area, but had to lie on my back there due to the pain. It didn't take long for the EMT team to arrive...

The team that Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney had to call?

...which did a quick assessment and put me in a neck brace and on a stiff stretcher. It seemed to take about fifteen minutes before the helicopter arrived and another fifteen in flight before arriving at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

Weren't you scared taking off from Ridgely without a Rooney Link to increase the safety of the takeoff operation? Did you ask the pilot to dump a bottle of water in the fuel tank to help simulate the kind of Ridgely takeoff you're most familiar and comfortable with?

It didn't take long to get the results of the CAT scan and X-rays to reveal the injuries. Treatment at the Shock Trauma Center is second to none, and the staff was very professional and friendly.

Wow! A very professional staff just fifteen minutes after leaving Highland Aerosports! Good thing you were at a shock trauma center second to none!

I had surgery on Thursday afternoon and was sitting up in a chair by the next morning and walking a flight of stairs shortly thereafter. Bacil came by several times, and kept me up to date on current affairs.

Did he read you Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney's report on what you you did and why?

Talking to Sunny afterwards revealed that while packing the glider away, he noticed one of the fiberglass tip wands had a noticeable bend.

Do you think that that was what motivated you to attempt to get conveniently close to the launch line by threading the needle between a bunch of solid objects on a landing approach that Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney wouldn't try on a calm day with a beginner glider?

He said he would conduct a more thorough glider inspection when he had the time.

Why? Couldn't he have just read what one of his staffers reported on The Davis Show?

Due to the angle, point of contact (head), and severity of my impact with the ground, I am extremely lucky not to have suffered permanent paralysis - or worse. I will keep everyone informed of Sunny's more detailed glider inspection, and of my progress back to health and to flying status. Thanks, once again, to all those who helped and supported me during and after my traumatic event.

Aren't you gonna thank Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney specifically for calling the ambulance for you and his more accurate account of the incident?

Is that despicable little motherfucker EVER gonna be called to account for ANY of the stuff he incessantly pulls out of his ass and presents as indisputable fact?